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DC Comics Closes the Sales Gap in September, But What Does That Mean?

September 2017 had 6,831,536 units in the top 300 comics list, an increase of 238,261 units from last month. Marvel Comics placed 2,969,942 units in the top 300 comics and was down 18,763 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 43.47% of the total units for the top 300 comics. DC Comics accounted for 37.53% of the total units with 2,563,852 units and was up 196,158 units compared to last month.

Image Comics placed 562,366 units in the top 300 comics and was up 23,088 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 8.23% of the total units for the top 300 comics. IDW was up 54,620 units with a total of 217,066 units which accounted for 3.18%. Dark Horse placed 95,967 units and was up 4,868 units compared to last month and accounted for 1.40%.

The premiere publishers accounted for 93.82% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 6.18% of the units. Albatross Funnybooks, Benitez Productions, Devil’s Due/1First Comics and Abstract Studios dropped out of the top 300 comics this month.

The up-swing in September was 2,015,528 units with the new title category being the majority of it with 1,163,456 units. The down-swing was 1,777,267 units with defunct titles being the majority of it with 927,331 units.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 207,096 units compared to last month. Teen Titans was the title with the largest gain in sales in September with 23,925 units. Teen Titans #12 was a Dark Nights: Metal tie-in issue and was up 71.56% over the sales of the previous issue. Nightwing #29 was up 55.45% and Suicide Squad #26 was up 50.59%. Both were Dark Nights: Metal tie-in issues. Mister Miracle #1 sold 33,493 units last month and the reorder activity put the total known sales at 48,175. My system calculated a “drop” of 6,600 units from the total known sales but it would be equally valid to consider Mister Miracle #2 to be up by the 8,082 units shown on this chart.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 32,885 units compared to last month. August has five shipping weeks while September only had four. Only two titles, Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider and Royals shipping more issues in September than in August.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 2,724 units compared to last month. Kamandi Challenge is selling better than I thought it might. This sort of series might be a bit indulgent on the part of the publisher and creators but it seems to be selling reasonably consistently from month-to-month after large second issue drop.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 169,420 units compared to last month. Star Wars and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again accounted for 108,557 of the units and the single issue of each title which shipped in September dropped by 1,044 units for Star Wars and 2,193 unit son the final issue of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 374,106 units compared to last month. The title with the biggest month-to-month drop was Dark Nights: Metal which dropped by 112,510 units. Dark Nights: Metal #2 sold 149,487 units after a 44.86% drop. While the drop is large, the sales are still well above the 100,000 mark and the tie-in issues are seeing strong bumps in sales.

The new titles category added 1,163,456 units compared to last month. The various Generations one-shots accounted for 254,584 units of those units. These one-shots are showing up in this category because they were assigned series codes which normally implies future issues are expected. Venomverse accounted for 271,733 units across the four issues which shipped in September. The title launched with 105,398 units, dropped to 57,279 units on the second issue, followed by the third issue selling 55,111 units and ending the month with 53,945 units on Venomverse #4.